This invention relates to a grinding or polishing device of the type consisting of one or more substantially circular grinding or polishing discs, each having a central hole and radial grinding or polishing segments arranged along the periphery thereof.
Such rotating grinding or polishing devices are used, for example, for grinding or polishing furniture parts, such as louvered or panelled doors. However, it is very often difficult to obtain a good and uniform grinding or polishing finish, because the parts will often have a very complex shape with projections, hollows, grooves and the like.
A rotating grinding or polishing device of this type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,879,631, disclosing a brush. This brush consists of a large number of slits or slotted sheets of stiff sheet material coated with abrasive materials, which sheets by the folding thereof, are retained in a metal channelform back element.
This structure, however, is encumbered with several drawbacks. It is, for example, costly as well as inconvenient to use a metal channelform element. The manner of assembling the grinding or polishing disc is also disadvantageous because the segments cannot be fully joined together. This will have the effect of the segments relatively often breaking off.
It is a further drawback that the segments can only with difficulty turn their abrasive surfaces in towards the object bacause they are made of a stiff material, such as thin spring steel. This will produce an uneven and poor grinding or polishing finish.
Finally, this known structure is rather heavy, which will necessitate a comparatively powerful motor and which will also impair the polishing quality.
All things considered, this known structure cannot grind or polish wooden objects, for example, which are not quite even, because the segments simply cannot follow the configuration of the object. At the same time, the brush is both expensive and difficult to manufacture.